South Korea - France
March 2003
The Korea-France Culture Capsule exchange was organized between two primany schools, one in the city of Nantes in France and the second in South Korea.
The visit of the Asefuan members in the participating classes gave them the opportunity to introduce the involved students with the partner country. At that time, French children still reminded South Korea performance during the world cup. Korea was popular and children were eager to learn more about that country.
After a time of workshop in groups about Korean culture and society, the Asefuan member gathered in a postal box all the letters, pictures and items to be sent to the Korean pupils. With the cooperation of the English teacher, children had written very simple letters with their name, hobbies, number of sisters and brothers, etc. The French class partner had the particularity to be located close to a refugies residence. Thus, most of the children had foreign origins. To participate in an exchange with a foreign country was an opportunity for them to define themselves as French as well as to express their double cultural belonging.
Before the visit of the Asefuan member, the teacher was provided with a camera and asked the pupils to take photos of their everyday life : in their families, at school or on the playground were they meet after school. Together, they organised and commented the photos for the Korean childrens.
Finally, they were ask to bring one item representative of their country or city. That was probably the most difficult part of the project since they had to think about what in their way of life or in everyday environment may be different from a Korean pupil way of life and environment.
The box was closed and sent to the Korean school. Koreans pupils did the same at the same time and two weeks later, the children could open their parcel with the teacher. Each one got a letter and the small « gift » included with it. The teacher commented the items and the photos received : photos showed Korean children in school uniform or family seating on the floor for lunch. Inevitably the Korean class was much more homogeneous than the French one. In fact, photos are a good way to introduce children with another country everyday life.